


New Year's Love

by myglassesaredirty



Category: Left Behind - Jerry B. Jenkins & Tim LaHaye, Left Behind: the Kids
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anyways, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, New Year's Eve, New Year's Fluff, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood, Single Parents, Well - Freeform, here you are, i still have ten minutes before midnight here, it's a snippet from an au where she is a single parent for a while, not exactly, someone bls write fic over my fic i hate being the only one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22064416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myglassesaredirty/pseuds/myglassesaredirty
Summary: Judd has spent the past eight months trying to prove to the love of his life that he will be a good father, that he is a good father, and Vicki has spent the past eight months slowly coming to believe him.They spend New Year's together.
Relationships: Judd Thompson Jr. & Original Female Character, Judd Thompson Jr./Vicki Byrne, Vicki Byrne & Original Female Character
Comments: 4
Kudos: 2





	New Year's Love

“Hope, I’m afraid that CandyLand is broken. We cannot play it anymore.”

Hope crosses her arms and sticks her bottom lip out in a pout. In that moment, she looks exactly like her mother, minus the lack of fiery red hair and his eyes. “Are you just saying that?”

Judd internally thanks God that his daughter isn’t quite old enough to know his lying tells, but Vicki is. She peers over the kitchen counter and raises one eyebrow at him.

He is afraid of Vicki, sometimes. Not in a way that would constitute an abusive relationship, of course not, but Vicki loves their daughter more than she loves him. But he hates CandyLand, so he’s willing to take Vicki’s wrath over that hellish game any day.

“I’m sorry, but it’s true, sweetheart,” he says, taking his daughter’s hands. “But, I asked Mommy, and she said that all three of us could stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop!”

Hope tilts her head. “What’s the big deal about that? I do it all the time, watch.” She tugs her hands from her father’s and reaches for the ball he got her for Christmas. She lifts it above her head and drops it. “See?”

Sometimes the hardest thing about being a father is learning how to respond when your child does something entirely unimpressive. He nods. “Yeah, I see, but this isn’t just any ball.” He stands and picks his daughter up, tossing her into the air. She squeals. “When the ball drops, that means it’s a new year!” He pulls her close to him and presses kisses to her face and she laughs, throwing her head back.

Vicki steps out from behind the counter. “Hope, you don’t have to stay up if you don’t want to.” Judd and Vicki had agreed that they would only let Hope stay up for the dropping of the ball in New York, and once that was over, they would take her to bed and stay up for the real thing. Now, if that was going to work or not, they literally had no idea. Vicki had spent all her previous New Year’s Eves with just her and Hope, and she would just put Hope to bed early before turning the tv to an old film.

Hope swats her father’s hands, and he gently sets her down. “How late do I get to stay up?”

They anticipated that she would ask a question like that, so they had switched all the digital clocks to an hour ahead. She couldn’t read yet, of course, but it was a precautionary measure.

“All night” was not the answer Vicki wanted Judd to give Hope.

However, a four year old – even with the willpower and sheer stubbornness that came from having both Judd and Vicki as her parents – did not have enough willpower to stay up until midnight. As  _ Finding Dory _ drones in the background, Vicki rereads  _ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe _ for what Judd is convinced is the forty-eighth time in all the years that he’s known her. Hope sprawled out across him twenty minutes ago, her arm draped over his stomach and her head awkwardly resting on his chest, and he has his hand on her back.

The movie is almost over, and once it is, they have another hour until the ball drops in New York. And if there is one thing Judd wants to say, more than anything else, it’s that he cannot imagine a life without either of his girls by his side.

He lolls his head. “Vick?”

“Mhm?” Her eyes don’t stray from the pages. They’re worn with use, tired from the fluorescent lights inside or the sunlight outside, stained with various food materials, and broken at the spine. Bruce gave her that book when she was seven, and Judd was the one who helped her get through it one page at a time by challenging her to a competition. She claimed he had a head start, but when he threatened a spoiler, she would bury her nose in the book and speed-read the chapter before he could ruin it for her.

He smiles softly. “You’ve read that book at least three times a year since you got it.”

She lifts her index finger and sticks it in his face. “And I find something new in it every time. But, somehow, I’m pretty sure that’s not what you were planning on saying.”

He chuckles softly, careful not to wake Hope. “You know I love you, right, Vick? I love you so much it’s crazy.”

This gets her to look up from her book, and she gently closes it, her finger still in between the pages to mark her place. “Oh, Judd,” she whispers, a smile crossing her face, “I never doubted it for a second.” Because he can’t move without waking Hope, Vicki sets her book on the coffee table and crawls forward to press a pre-New Year’s kiss to Judd’s lips. “And I hope you know,” she says, her eyes still closed, “that I love you more than almost anything in the world.”

He opens his eyes just long enough to look at his daughter sleeping peacefully on him. “I’m right exactly behind Hope, aren’t I?”

“Yep.” Her breath ghosts over his lips, and he can feel the way she pops her  _ p. _

“Then I guess I can’t complain,” he murmurs, tilting her chin up to kiss her again.

The new year might not be here yet, but it does not stop either Judd or Vicki from kissing slowly on the couch that night. When the clock ticks closer to eleven pm (or midnight in New York), they’ll wake Hope and cheer when the ball drops and the new year arrives, and they’ll press a kiss to each of her cheeks before taking her back to bed, and Vicki will pick up her book and tell Judd some of her resolutions – start online school, maybe, get Hope to church at least twice a month, teach her to read short books with easy sentences, maybe go on a run once a week – and Judd will smile and nod and turn over the only resolution he has in his mind:

Propose to Vicki and begin spending the rest of his life with her and Hope.

And he will squeeze her hand and not tell her his resolution, only that he wants this year to be the best of his life, even though not much could top finding his daughter and the love of his life all in one day and getting to be back in both of their lives, and he will say goodnight, and she will tug his hand and ask him to stay, even though they both know that the possibility of Hope getting a little sibling increases when he stays the night, but he will agree and they will go to bed after midnight, and they will curl into each other and fall asleep immediately and think about how miraculous their lives have turned out to be in this year.

But the ball hasn’t dropped yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Like it, love it, hate it? Leave a comment below or go to my tumblr, @ my-glasses-are-dirty, and tell me what you think!


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